The invention disclosed herein relates generally to providing alternate routing of communications in a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to routing packet switched communications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) communications from a packet-switched network to a circuit-switched network such as the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) or other alternate network.
For many years, the PSTN has provided a reliable mechanism for transmitting voice communications. With the rise of available bandwidth on the Internet, however, VoIP systems have become increasingly popular. These newer systems offer a number of advantages over the PSTN including more efficient use of network bandwidth, lower cost of ownership, and advanced services such as video conferencing.
One disadvantage associated with conventional VoIP networks is that they are highly dependent on the availability of network bandwidth to provide an acceptable quality of service (“QoS”) for communications. Further, these networks are also highly dependent on the availability of network components to complete calls. If the network bandwidth drops below a certain threshold or a critical network component is unavailable, then a call placed on a conventional VoIP network typically will not reach its intended destination and will fail. Conventional VoIP networks are thus relatively fragile systems that are dependent on conditions existing above given thresholds within their networks to complete calls.
There is thus also a need for a robust system which enables alternate routing of communications in a network. More particularly, there is a need for a system that enables the routing of VoIP communications to the PSTN when sufficient VoIP network resources are unavailable to complete a communication.